Only Shooting Stars
by UnluckyAmulet
Summary: Oneshot. In which the events of "Speed Demon" are not as straightforward as first thought, and with help from the Professor, Buttercup makes a shocking discovery about her true potential.


Disclaimer: Do not own, blah blah.

So lately, I stumbled on a fan-theory that Buttercup's special power _isn't_ to curl her tongue (what was Cartoon Network thinking?!), but her power is actually to breach the space/time continuum, which is why the events of Power-noia happened. So I thought I'd write a fic on it, especially since Buttercup is my favourite girl.

Enjoy!

* * *

At first, her only thought had been to _get out of there._

It all happened over a race, a dumb challenge randomly thrown down in a fit of excitement and impatience. They had no idea what they were about to get themselves into- how could they? They had raced home like that plenty of times, but Buttercup loved to push herself, loved the feeling of wind raking through her hair and concrete melting into a blue-grey blur beneath her. She had gotten so lost in the moment, she barely even heard the echo, although later it rebounded back to her in the night, leaving her screaming until her throat hurt.

_"I told ya I'd win!"_

There had been no doubt in Buttercup's mind that she would win- out of the three sisters, it had always been her who would take the risks, to keep pushing herself until she was past her breaking point. Bubbles had tried that once...didn't turn out brilliantly. Talking Dog still had a bit of a stutter around her...

But, even though the girls each heard that monotonous chanting in their heads in their dreams (_your fault, your fault, YOUR FAULT_), the Professor had, as always, stepped in and assured them that everything was fine, go back to sleep, things will look better in the morning. They believed him because he was their father, after all. Even when they had eventually been forced to fight Him again, the nightmares had eventually gone away.

But now, it was happening all over again. What's worse was, this tine, Buttercup was alone.

The raven-haired child tried to gather her thoughts, think back to _what_ could have triggered it.

The day had started pretty much like any other...

_"Hey! Do you guys wanna play kickball?"_

_"I'm in!"_

_"Sure!"_

_Robin had giggled brightly and run off, her hair streaming out behind her like a cape. The Powerpuff Girls eagerly followed her into the playground, where their team was already waiting. At first, it all went fine; Sometimes people kicked the ball too hard or not hard enough, but mostly everyone just laughed it off. Recess was for fun, after all._

_Then, it was Buttercup's turn to kick._

_"Ready when you are." she grinned, her bright green eyes narrowing as she prepared herself._

_Robin, tongue poking out from the corner of her mouth, took steady aim and threw._

_Buttercup had learnt in her short life how to keep her strength (mostly) in check, but there were occasions where she slipped up. This was one of them. Lost for a moment of childish enthusiasm, Buttercup's sandalled foot hit the ball HARD. The next second, it flew over the chainlink fence and bounced, almost tauntingly, onto the grass across from the road._

_Groans rose from the others and Buttercup defiantly fought back a blush._

_"Buttercup, why'd you always have to kick it so hard?" whined Blossom._

_"Oh, shut up!" she retorted, turning to her sister and squaring her shoulders._

_"It's okay guys, I'll get it." Robin said, holding up her hands in a pacifying gesture._

_The Powerpuffs backed down as Robin ran towards the gates. Strictly speaking, they weren't supposed to leave the playground until after school, but if it was just to get the ball back, it didn't occur to anybody to object. Robin glanced around for a moment, brows furrowed in confusion. Her eyes lit up when she spotted the ball, lying in a patch of unmowed grass, its synthetic surface now slightly shiny with rainwater. She was pleased to have found the object of her search so quickly, and darted across the street..._

_"ROBIN!"_

_It was pure instinct. From the moment she and her sisters had been created, this instinct had been inside of them, lying in wait for a moment that it would be triggered off. Buttercup saw the car, saw Robin's fingers halting as she realised what was happening, and simply rode the impulses that were hard-wired into her. It was a part of her very being._

_She dove._

_In hindsight, she should have known what was going to happen the moment she left her spot on the playground, taking off so hard that a groove appeared in the tarmac below where her Mary Janes dug into the ground. There had only been a select few times Buttercup had reacted as fast as she did then, but this time where was the ringing sensation - I have to._

_I have to save her._

_I have to._

_Failure wasn't an option, and it didn't happen. Robin was flung backwards into a bush, the car roaring past her, tires screeching along the road as the driver tried desperately to catch up to what had just happen and control their vehicle at the same time. Robin blinked, clutching the ball to her chest. Leaves and branches were jabbing her in the back, but she barely even noticed._

_"What...?" she said, hardly able to speak, much less form a coherant sentence. Twin streaks of pastel pink and baby blue shot towards her, Bubbles and Blossom skidding to a halt before the stunned girl._

_"Robin!"_

_Blossom stood there, extending an arm to her, which Robin took without thinking. _

_"Are you okay?!" asked Bubbles, her hands over her mouth._

_"Y-yeah..." Robin replied, still a little shaken. "What just happened?"_

_"I'm not sure, exactly..." said Blossom, frowning. "You were in the road, then suddenly..."_

_The redhead looked around, a crucial factor suddenly making itself known to her._

_Then Blossom asked the question that was seemingly straightforward, but had no answer._

_"Where's Buttercup?"  
_

* * *

_"Wh...where am I?"_

_Unknowingly echoing her sister's question, Buttercup stopped everything she was doing and forced herself to remain still. For miles, Buttercup could see nothing but grey. It was as though she had somehow found her way into an old photograph where there was no colour. She rubbed her face, her arm looking almost flourescent in her featureless surroundings. Dusky emerald eyes shone in the semi-gloom as the five-year-old hovered uncertainly above the floor. For some reason, Buttercup did not want to touch anything. She hated to admit it, even inside her own head, but she was frightened. It was like she was stranded in space, for she couldn't detect any sort of noise with her super-human hearing, nor feel so much as the slightest of breezes._

_"Hello?" called the raven-haired child uncertainly, her voice echoing all around her. It sounds plaintive to her ears, even though she does not intend it to be. "Hello, is anyone there?"_

_She didn't expect an answer, and she didn't get one. Buttercup frowned._

_"Just what is this freaky place supposed to be, anyway?" she mumbled to herself. Even though there was no wind, she still felt cold._

_At a loss at what to do, Buttercup flew up high, her eyes narrowed in concentration. She seemed to be in some kind of city, but many of the buildings were faded and crumbling to the point that they were almost totally decayed, so they gave her little to go on as far as discerning where she was. It was like she was stuck in a negative photograph._

_"Blossom?" Buttercup called, feeling lost and alone without her sisters, even if she'd never have said as much out loud. "Bubbles?"_

_No answer came._

_Buttercup gulped. This place was unnerving to her. It wasn't merely the total absense of life, or the abrupt lack of colour and sound. Something nagged at Buttercup's mind, and she was struck with the sensation that she was on the brink of understanding something unplesaant. Her brain was battling with itself in that moment- struggling to remember, and trying NOT to at the same time. Logically, the raven-haired child knew that this realisation, whatever it was, may help her figure out how to get out of there, but she felt stragnely afraid of what knowledge would be imparted to her. She had probably forgotten about this place for a reason..._

_Buttercup, deciding just hovering in midair like this was doing her no good, dived back down towards the city. Her eyes glossed over with moisture as the wind stung at them, and she blinked hard a few times to get rid of it. As she did so, her eyes fell on a shrivelled flower. Like everything else in this creepy place, it was grey. Buttercup stared at it. She couldn't tell what kind of flower it had been- there wasn't really any light, so it couldn't exactly flourish..._

_And then, it hit her._

_This place. It was the ruined-Townsville...or something very similar to it, anyway. There were no people, no indication of what happened to the City to make it decrepit and lifeless like this. Buttercup's mouth fell open in horror as the memories flooded her, the dull chanting as the zombie-like citizens repetedly laid blame at their feet, their words cutting them deeper than any weapon could have done._

_Failures._

_Buttercup let out a scream that didn't even sound like it came from her; It carried the desperation of a wounded animal caught in a snare. It wasn't even a word, just an incoherent screm of pain and desperation. Without stopping to fret over whether it would work, Buttercup rose into the air and took off, taking a random direction and flying as fast as she could., not knowing if it would take her away from this place or just lead her further into the forbidding grey wilderness. Tears streamed unbidden down her cheeks, and she didn't even pretend to figth them back. Buttercup clenched her eyes shut, willing herself with every fibre of her being to GET ME OUT OF HERE._

_And with a flash, she vanished, the only streak of colour vanishing into the world she belonged.  
_

* * *

When Buttercup finally opened her eyes, it was only when she'd literally crashed into a halt, into some unfortunate person's shed. When her eyes opened, Buttercup nearly cried out in relief when she saw the sun pouring down upon Townsville, which was noisy, colourful and _alive._

Just as it should be.

She jumped up with a shriek, spinning around to take it all in with her eyes, which are nearly brimming with tears over the sheer gratefulness in her that she is here, not in that terrifying grey world with no sound.

But soon, doubt began to fall. Buttercup's smile faded as she glanced behind her at the splintered wood that she crashed into, head first.

What had happened? Where did she go? She wasn't by the school, anymore. How long had she been gone? Were her sisters looking for her?

Instead of sitting there, Buttercup floated up into the sky. She didn't want to be sitting in the garden when the owner of the shed came outside and saw what she had done (not that it was really _her_ fault, and besides, there wasn't much anybody could do besides yell at her).

Buttercup turned, wheeling around in the endless stretch of blue, and shot off in one direction: Home.

The door banged as Buttercup soared through the threshold, pushing it open and shooting upstairs like a comment, heading straight for her room.

"Hm? Blossom? Buttercup? Bubbles?"

The Professor sounded surprised. Buttercup surmised that it must be still around lunch-time; why else would he sound like that because one of his daughters had come home, otherwise?

She heard footsteps as she lay there, huddled under the pink/green/blue striped blanket shared by herself and her sisters.

"Hello?"

He was in the room, now. He frowned at the lump under the covers.

"Hi, Professor." Buttercup's voice greeted him. Something didn't sound right- her voice was small, slightly hoarse, like she had been screaming.

"Buttercup?"

Now concerned, the Professor approached the bed and perched on the end.

"Buttercup, what's the matter? What are you doing home?"

Buttercup threw back the covers, hovering upwards so she could sit on the pillows as she struggled to put her experience into words. She looked at her knees, then at the windows. The sky was still blue, as it should be.

Buttercup frowned at the covers.

"Professor...I-I think there might be something wrong with me."

"What do you mean, honey?"

He sounded so concerned; It was usually the tone of voice he reserved for Bubbles when she had a nightmare. So Buttercup told him; told him of the strange, shadowy world she had found herself in, of how helpless she had felt, how she got there when she was flying to save Robin, then...

"And then...I don't know. I didn't know what else to do. I just flew away."

The Professor seemed lost in thought, but when he turned to Buttercup, she knew he'd been listening to every word.

"And the first time this happened, your sisters were with you, right?"

A nod.

"Hmm…"

"Professor? Am…am I sick, or something?"

The Professor glanced at his daughter, who was staring up at him with big, beseeching eyes. He shook his head, one hand brushing through Buttercup's jet black hair.

"Sweetheart, you remember when you were upset because you wanted to have a special power, like your sisters?"

Buttercup bit back the _I wasn't UPSET!_ Retort that was balanced on her tongue, because she knew he was right, so she merely nodded, sullenly.

"Yeah, and all I can do is curl my tongue." Buttercup grumbled.

She pretended to like her special power in front of Blossom and Bubbles, simply because she could do it and they couldn't, but she had always hoped for something a bit more…well, _impressive. _But what the Professor said next halted Buttercup of any further action;

"I don't believe that's the case, anymore."

"Huh?" she looked up at him. "Whaddaya mean?"

"Buttercup…when you raced with your sisters that morning, you were pushing yourself to your utmost limits, because you wanted to win. That was the first thing you said when the race was over, correct? 'I told you I'd win!' And then Bubbles said she'd already heard you saying it."

The girl nodded, not really sure where this was going, but willing to keep quiet as the Professor explained things to her.

"The first time, you and your sisters assumed you had accidentally stumbled into an alternate future, in which you left Townsville and it was destroyed. You were all excited to go on vacation, which was the excitement and desire to go that fueled you to race home. It only happened when you, assuming you were the fastest, took the lead. But this time, your grey world was different. I cannot say exactly why it changed into being an empty world, except that it was probably not the future that you and your sisters encountered. But you ended up there, alone. Why?"

A little thrown, Buttercup thought hard.

"Because I was racing, again?" she ventured.

"Right, but this time, it wasn't excitement that pushed you to fly at your very fastest, the very limits you could go. It was to save Robin, this time. It was of the utmost importance, not just because it's what you do on a regular basis, but because Robin is your friend. It was established last time, you won the race. You won it again, this time; saving Robin."

The Professor stood up, pacing a little. Buttercup watched him, the action so familiar to her that she found herself comforted by it, the repetitive motion giving her something to focus on.

"You thought , at the time, that you were simply faster than your sisters. But I propose a differing hypothesis."

"What's that, Professor?"

The Professor looked to his green-eyed daughter.

"Buttercup…I believe that you may have broken the space/time barrier."

The girl gaped.

"_What?!"_

"The first time, your sisters were brought with you because all three of you desired the same outcome; To win the race and get home. Blossom and Bubbles are the only two people who would be able to keep up with you, so when your power activated, it managed to bring not only you, but them too. The second time, you were along, because you were fueled by your desperation and resolve to save Robin from being hit by that car. In doing so, you activated your power again, possibly going to a continuum where Townsville was abandoned for a different reason. It's pure conjecture, of course, but…"

"But, Professor!" Buttercup cried, jumping up, looking dismayed. "If I can do that, what if I keep going to bad futures? I don't want to go there every time I fly!"

The Professor smiled.

"But it was different, this time, right? You _saved_ Robin, so nothing bad happened in the future. Townsville- if that was Townsville- wasn't still there, but that was a different continuum from the first time. I think that, as you get older and learn more about this phenomenon, along with help from your sisters and I, of course, you'll be able to do amazing things with it, Buttercup."

Buttercup considered this. True, it had been creepy being there all alone, but it wasn't terrifying, not full of anger and hate like the first time. And she'd dealt with it all on her own, without her sisters help!

"So, it's like, when Blossom was first learning about her ice powers and kept freezing everything?" she asked.

"Exactly! It's brand new to you, so you won't get it right straight away…in time, with practice, you'll know how and when to use it. I'm sure of it."

Buttercup grinned, and then suddenly looked shocked as she remembered what she had been doing _before _all this continuum-jumping happened.

"Oh! Blossom and Bubbles don't know I'm back yet! I have to go let 'em know I'm okay!"

"Oh, don't worry about that." Chuckled the Professor, as he saw twin streaks of pink and blue rocketing through the sky. "I think they know now."

As the Professor stepped out of the way and his other daughters came bursting through the windows, crashing into their sister with streaks of, "Buttercup!" "Where have you _been_?!" he smiled slightly, relieved to see Buttercup laughing as her sisters exclaimed in both shock and delight at seeing their sibling safe at home.

Of course, there was no telling where and when Buttercup might end up next, should her power trigger off unexpectedly again…but he was confident that, with time, practice and support from himself and Bubbles and Blossom, Buttercup would conquer this new obstacle in her way. And, should she ever get lost again, her home would always be right here.

* * *

And family fluff at the end, of course.

Thanks for reading!


End file.
